Thomas F. Torrance and Evangelical Theology: A Critical Analysis

By Myk Habets and Fred Sanders

Thomas F. Torrance invites evangelicals to think more Christianly

Thomas F. Torrance and Evangelical Theology: A Critical Analysis brings Torrance into closer conversation with evangelical theology on a range of key theological topics.

• Thomas F. Torrance and the Evangelical Tradition (Thomas A. Noble)
• Torrance, The Tacit Dimension, and The Church Fathers (Jonathan Warren P. (Pagán))
• Torrance and the Doctrine of Scripture (Andrew T. B. McGowan)
• Revelation, Rationalism, and an Evangelical Impasse (Myk Habets)
• Theology and Science in Torrance (W. Ross Hastings)
• A Complexly Relational Account of the Imago Dei in Torrance’s Vision of Humanity (Marc Cortez)
• Barth, Torrance, and Evangelicals: Critiquing and Reinvigorating the Idea of a “Personal Relationship with Jesus” (Marty Folsom)
• Torrance and Atonement (Christopher Woznicki)
• Torrance and Christ’s Assumption of Fallen Human Nature: Toward Clarification and Closure (Jerome Van Kuiken)
• Torrance, Theosis, and Evangelical Reception (Myk Habets)
• Thinking and Acting in Christ: Torrance on Spiritual Formation (Geordie W. Ziegler)
• ‘Seeking Love, Justice and Freedom for All’: Using the Work of T.F. and J.B. Torrance to Address Domestic and Family Violence (Jenny Richards)
• Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Work (Peter K. W. McGhee)
• Torrance and Global Evangelicalism: Some Potential Generative Exchanges with Contemporary Indian Evangelical Theology (Stavan Narendra John)

Thomas Forsyth Torrance (1913–2007) was one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century, yet his work remains relatively neglected by evangelicals. 

A diverse collection of contributors engage Torrance’s pioneering and provocative thought, deriving insights from theological loci such as Scripture, Christology, and atonement, as well as from broader topics like domestic violence and science. These stimulating essays reveal how Torrance can help evangelical theologians articulate richer and deeper theology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Release date: May 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781683596943

Fred Sanders

  Fred Sanders (PhD, Graduate Theological Union) is professor of theology in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He is author of numerous books including The Triune God in the New Studies in Dogmatics series; The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything; and Dr. Doctrines’ Christian Comix. He is coeditor of Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology and Retrieving Eternal Generation. Fred is a core participant in the Theological Engagement with California’s Culture Project and a popular blogger at The Scriptorium Daily.  

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THOMAS F. TORRANCE and EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY

A Critical Analysis

Edited by MYK HABETS and R. LUCAS STAMPS

STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

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Thomas F. Torrance and Evangelical Theology: A Critical Analysis

Studies in Historical & Systematic Theology

Copyright 2023 Myk Habets and R. Lucas Stamps

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CONTENTS

Dedication

List of Contributors

Foreword

Introduction: Torrance and Evangelical Theology in Conversation

Myk Habets and R. Lucas Stamps

1.Thomas F. Torrance and the Evangelical Tradition

Thomas A. Noble

2.Torrance, the Tacit Dimension, and the Church Fathers

Jonathan Warren P. (Pagán)

3.Torrance and the Doctrine of Scripture

Andrew T. B. McGowan

4.Revelation, Rationalism, and an Evangelical Impasse

Myk Habets

5.Theology and Science in Torrance

W. Ross Hastings

6.A Complexly Relational Account of the Imago Dei in Torrance’s Vision of Humanity

Marc Cortez

7.Barth, Torrance, and Evangelicals

Critiquing and Reinvigorating the Idea of a Personal Relationship with Jesus

Marty Folsom

8.Torrance and Atonement

Christopher Woznicki

9.Torrance and Christ’s Assumption of Fallen Human Nature

Toward Clarification and Closure

Jerome Van Kuiken

10.Torrance, Theosis, and Evangelical Reception

Myk Habets

11.Thinking and Acting in Christ

Torrance on Spiritual Formation

Geordie W. Ziegler

12.Seeking Love, Justice and Freedom for All

Using the Work of T. F. and J. B. Torrance to Address Domestic and Family Violence

Jenny RiChards

13.Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Work

Peter K. W. McGhee

14.Torrance and Global Evangelicalism

Some Potential Generative Exchanges with Contemporary Indian Evangelical Theology

Stavan Narendra John

Bibliography

Subject Index

Name Index

Scripture Index

DEDICATION

I dedicate this volume to the members of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship. The Fellowship is not a society or exclusive club; it is a fellowship. In the true spirit of the name, I have found a warm, receptive, and stimulating group of colleagues, friends, and dialogue partners. Members of the fellowship meet on equal footing and quickly become friends. From time spent on the shores of Loch Tay to late nights in hotel lobbies during ETS and AAR, members of the fellowship have listened to my ideas, sharpened my theology, and provided models of what evangelical academics should be. Thank you. May your tribe increase.

Myk Habets,

Doctor Serviens Ecclesiae

Auckland, New Zealand

I dedicate this book to two men whose name I share: Robert Stamps. To my cousin, Robert Julian Stamps, who was the first bearer of the name to publish on the rich theology of T. F. Torrance. His 2007 volume, The Sacrament of the Word Made Flesh: The Eucharistic Theology of Thomas F. Torrance, remains a significant contribution to the field of Torrance studies. And to my father, Robert Eugene Stamps, whose untimely death during the production of this volume casts a dark shadow over its completion, but not without a ray of light. To my knowledge, he never read any Torrance (other than what he read in the footnotes of my published work), but he, along with my mother, was the first to teach me the biblical truths that I find so compelling in Torrance—most notably, the unconditional love of God through the vicarious work of Jesus Christ. My father was embarrassingly proud of everything that I accomplished academically, and, I can’t imagine, if I may be so bold, that that fatherly affection has ended in the supernal realms.

Robert Lucas Stamps

Shawnee, Oklahoma

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Marc Cortez, PhD, is professor of Theology at Wheaton College. His teaching and writing focus primarily on the nature of the human person and how Jesus informs our understanding of humanity. He is the author of several books in theological anthropology including Christological Anthropology in Historical Perspective, ReSourcing Theological Anthropology: A Constructive Account of Humanity in the Light of Christ, and Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed.

Marty Folsom, PhD, is executive director, Pacific Association for Theological Studies, and Contingent Faculty, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle University, Northwest University, The Seattle School for Theology & Psychology, Trinity Lutheran, and Shiloh University. He is the author of the Face to Face series (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013–2016), and the multivolume Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for Everyone (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic).

Myk Habets, PhD, MRSNZ, is senior lecturer in theology and head of the School of Theology at Laidlaw College and has leading researcher status with AUT. He is co-vice president of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship, Associate Editor of Participatio: The Journal of the Thomas Torrance Theological Fellowship, and past Co-editor of Journal of Theological Interpretation (Penn State University Press). He publishes work on constructive systematic theology. His recent work includes editing with Paul Molnar the T&T Clark Handbook of Thomas F. Torrance (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2020), and Theological Theological Interpretation of Scripture, IJST 23 (2021): 235–58. Myk is associate pastor of Albany Baptist Church.

Ross Hastings, PhD, is the Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver. He earned a PhD in both theology and chemistry. He has recently published The Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Baker Academic) and Theological Ethics (Zondervan Academic).

Stavan Narendra John, is a PhD candidate at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Middlesex University, and is a faculty-in-training in the Department of Theology and History at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, Bangalore, India. His doctoral thesis focuses on Thomas F. Torrance’s theology of the ascension. His theological interests lie in the areas of Christology, ecclesiology, systematic theology, and evangelical theology.

Peter K. W. McGhee, PhD, is senior lecturer and deputy head of the Department of Management at AUT University Business, Economics and Law School. His expertise and research interests lie in business ethics, workplace spirituality, sustainability, and critical management studies; his recent work focuses on ethical leadership, human quality treatment at work, educating for sustainability, and the theology of work. Peter is widely published in a range of esteemed business, ethics, and sustainability journals including Faith & Organizational Ethics, in E. Pio and R. Kilpatrick, ed., Reimagining Faith and Management: The Impact of Faith in the Workplace (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021), 77–89; and with P. Grant, Hedonic Versus (True) Eudaimonic Well-Being in Organizations, in D. Satinder, ed., The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021), 925–43.

Andrew T. B. McGowan, PhD, is director of the Rutherford Centre for Reformed Theology and Professor of Theology in the University of the Highlands and Islands. He is vice chairman of the World Reformed Fellowship and serves as chairman of its Theological Commission. He is president of the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society and is a member of the Tyndale Fellowship. His publications include The Divine Inspiration of Scripture (London: Apollos, 2007).

Thomas A. Noble, PhD, is research professor of theology at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and a senior research fellow at Nazarene Theological College, Manchester. His publications include Tyndale House and Fellowship: The First Sixty Years (2006) and Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Theology of Christian Perfecting (2013). He has coedited several books including the second edition of the IVP New Dictionary of Theology and chairs the Christian Doctrine study group of the Tyndale Fellowship.

Jenny Richards, LLB, is lecturer in law at the College of Business Government and Law at Flinders University in South Australia, and Barrister and Solicitor at Old Port Chambers, Port Adelaide. She works predominantly in criminal law, social work law, and legal theory. She is currently writing a PhD dissertation on holistic criminal justice responses to violence against Christian women using the theology of T. F. Torrance and J. B. Torrance.

Fred Sanders, PhD, is professor of theology in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University. He writes mainly on the doctrine of the Trinity. He is the author of The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, The Triune God in the New Studies in Dogmatics series, and Fountain of Salvation: Trinity and Soteriology.

R. Lucas Stamps, PhD, is chair of the Hobbs School of Theology and Ministry and professor of biblical and theological studies at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He is the author of the forthcoming Thy Will Be Done: A Dogmatic Defense of Two Wills Christology, which examines, in part, the Christology of T. F. Torrance. He also serves on the board of directors for the Center for Baptist Renewal.

Jerome Van Kuiken, PhD, is professor of Christian thought and dean of the School of Ministry and Christian Thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. He is a member of the executive committee of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship and an associate editor of Participatio: The Journal of the Thomas Torrance Theological Fellowship. His recent work includes co-editing Methodist Christology: From the Wesleys to the Twenty-first Century (Nashville: Wesley’s Foundery, 2020) and contributing to the T&T Clark Handbook of Thomas F. Torrance (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2020).

Jonathan Warren P. (Pagán), PhD, is an Anglican priest serving at Resurrection Anglican Church in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Giles Firmin and the Transatlantic Puritan Tradition: Polity, Piety, and Polemic (Leiden: Brill, 2019) as well as, most recently, an essay tracing the reception of the book of Job in early modern Europe.

Christopher Woznicki, PhD, is adjunct assistant professor in theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. He works for Young Life in Los Angeles as a ministerial staff trainer. His research has been published in Journal of Reformed Theology, Philosophia Christi, and Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology. Chris is author of T. F. Torrance’s Christological Anthropology: Discerning Humanity in Christ (Routledge, 2022).

Geordie Ziegler, PhD, is an ordained presbyterian (PCUSA) minister, and holds a PhD in theology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and an MDiv from Regent College in Vancouver, B. C. He is the author of Trinitarian Grace and Participation: An Entry into the Theology of T. F. Torrance (Fortress, 2017).

FOREWORD

After relating one of the startling stories about the zealous exploits of Francis of Assisi, his biographer Bonaventure remarked that some things the saint did were easier admired than imitated. The theology of T. F. Torrance poses a similar question to evangelical theologians today: To what extent is he to be merely admired, and to what extent ought he to be imitated?

Readers picking up a book like this one are probably already fully aware that T. F. Torrance is a deeply admirable theological figure. Torrance’s most characteristic work looms up out of its late twentieth-century context in a striking manner, unique in several ways. From his earliest works he wrote from a strong commitment to a kind of realism about how theological language actually refers to divine realities. He requisitioned all sorts of resources from the philosophy of science to describe how this was the case. Even when his account of the implications of those resources seemed a bit idiosyncratic to most of his readers, it was impossible to deny that he worked from an unusually high level of confidence that theology could speak the truth. When Torrance described the central doctrinal affirmations of Christian faith, he wrote exactly like somebody who has a steady vision of something real and solid, an object of inquiry that was giving off definite impressions that its student was recording on paper.

As a result of working out of this realism, Torrance had a lot to say about the great, objective Christian doctrines. With few exceptions, what he had to say took the form of expansive commentary on authoritative texts from the tradition. Above all, there was the Nicene Creed, to which he returned time after time, never quite repeating himself but always demonstrating the Creed’s fruitfulness as a renewable source of insight into the realities of God and salvation. Compared with what other theologians were producing during these same decades, Torrance’s work seems uniquely focused on creedal exposition. But nearly all his work was driven by exposition, whether it was depth exegesis of Scripture or the tracing of trajectories through theological histories. In service to this vision of how theology ought to be done, Torrance even developed a distinctive writing style. A stereotypical page of T. F. Torrance theology is easily recognizable: it alternates between authoritative block quotations, analytically precise conceptual paraphrase, long strings of Greek in its own font, and an incantatory descriptive pattern, circling around central ideas. He believed in a Polanyian epistemology of indwelling the tradition, and it was that style of cognitive indwelling that found its way into a corresponding literary style of production. In an academic theological culture that tends to reward novelty and critique, Torrance set himself to retrieval and commentary. Paradoxically, this made his work novel, gave him a steady stream of new things to say, and positioned him to make critical interventions into the direction of modern theology. In retrieving the emphases of important figures from the Christian theological tradition, we can say Torrance knew his ABCs: Athanasius, Barth, and Calvin. But this trio of major influences is just the most prominent subset of a vast cast of characters.

And this is probably the hinge point where those who admire his theology are also bound to take the next step to imitating him in some regard. T. F. Torrance’s habit of writing constructive theology by means of retrieval meant that in all his work he was constantly pointing readers to larger figures behind him. There is simply no way of construing his main claims without coming to terms with the tradition of these other figures. He made himself a kind of gateway into the great resources of Christian doctrine. You read a few pages of Torrance and come away with ideas from Irenaeus, Nazianzus, Epiphanius, and more.

Of course each of these figures is famously inflected in a Torrantian way. Appreciative readers of Torrance quickly learn that when they turn excitedly to his sources they are likely to discover that Torrance has described those sources in some characteristic ways. Critical thinkers quickly learn to distinguish between Athanasius simpliciter and Athanasius kata Torrance; between what can responsibly be affirmed about the history of theology itself, and what can be said about Torrance’s creative reading of it. The adjustment is simple enough, and the result is enriching. We now have not only the classic texts, but Torrance’s creative reading of them as well. What expands and deepens in the meantime is the theological insight into the doctrinal foundation of Christian faith. And that deepening of the Christian frame of mind was always the goal of T. F. Torrance’s instruction.

The theology of T. F. Torrance is, in other words, an ideal dialogue partner for the kind of evangelical theology that is serious about the central matters of the Christian faith. This collection of essays strikes an excellent balance between broad-minded exploration of theological horizons and the particular urgencies of evangelical commitment. The result is a helpfully focused examination of the extent to which T. F. Torrance is to be admired, and the extent to which he is to be imitated by contemporary evangelical theology. The relative proportions of these answers vary from doctrine to doctrine, and are subject to the judgments of the relevant experts in these pages. But broadly speaking, the book showcases how his theological legacy calls for both admiration and imitation.

Fred Sanders

Torrey Honors College, Biola University

INTRODUCTION

TORRANCE AND EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY IN CONVERSATION

Myk Habets and R. Lucas Stamps

Thomas Forsyth Torrance (1913–2007) was arguably the most important English language theologian of the twentieth century.¹ Born in Chengdu, China, to missionary parents, Torrance would become one of the most important figures in the Church of Scotland, publishing voluminously, especially from his longtime professoriate at New College, University of Edinburgh. Torrance’s theology represents a creative fusion of theological influences both ancient and modern and both Eastern and Western. Torrance drew upon a wide range of sources from Athanasius to Karl Barth (with whom he completed postgraduate studies at Basel), and from John Calvin to Michael Polanyi. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the theology of Torrance but his exposure in the evangelical world remains relatively subdued. This book aims to bring Torrance into closer conversation with evangelical theology on a range of important theological loci. This introduction sets the stage for the discussion by briefly considering the broad theological commitments of both dialogue partners: evangelical theology and Torrance himself.

EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY

As to evangelicalism, many wonder whether the term has outlived its usefulness. In a North American context, evangelical is widely seen as a political identifier, not a set of theological distinctives. Matters are further complicated—better: enriched!—by the fact that evangelicalism is now a global phenomenon and not limited to the Anglo-American contexts in which it originally developed.² As an added complication, one could argue that the term may not even be exclusively Protestant, with some Roman Catholics adopting the descriptor as well.³ Despite these legitimate qualifications, it is our contention that the term evangelical still captures something theologically significant and, therefore, should not be rejected. Evangelicalism has a rich heritage and an enduring power to capture a distinctive theological agenda.

The history of evangelicalism is well-documented, and this is not the place to rehearse every detail.⁴ Suffice it to say, evangelicalism’s theological roots branch out in several directions. Its taproot, we might say, is the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, but it has been nourished as well by the influence of pietism, Puritanism, the modern missions movement, and especially the Great Awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The current trajectories of evangelicalism have also been definitively shaped by the so-called neo-evangelical movement in the post-World War II era (led by Carl Henry and Billy Graham, among others) that sought to distance evangelicalism from a more culturally quietistic and adversarial fundamentalism (see chapter 4). The movement has now gone global, with some arguing that the center of gravity is no longer in the West but in the majority world.⁵

It is by now a well-worn path to summarize the theological commitments of evangelicalism along the lines of the famous quadrilateral suggested by evangelical Baptist historian, David Bebbington. Bebbington suggests that four characteristics have especially marked the evangelical movement: "conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible; and what may be called crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism."⁶ This list of emphases is far from exhaustive, and evangelical theologians and historians may want to supplement it.⁷ Still, it remains a helpful rubric, at least as a starting point, for understanding the unique cocktail of doctrines that have shaped the evangelical movement. Evangelicalism takes its name from the evangel—the gospel, the good news. So, we might say that evangelicals are gospel people: those who emphasize the good news of salvation (understood in Protestant terms), the necessity of personal conversion that it demands, and the life of holiness and mission that flow from it. The authors in this volume represent the wide geographical spread of evangelicalism—ranging from New Zealand to India, and Britain to North America—but each is committed to these broad theological parameters. There are diverse views represented here, to be sure. The authors do not agree on every doctrinal point nor even on every disputed issue in the interpretation and appropriation of Torrance’s work. But for each there is a general identification with the global evangelical movement as stated.

THE THEOLOGY OF TORRANCE

This volume offers an evangelical engagement with some of the major themes in the theology of Torrance. The book aims not so much to provide a comprehensive introduction to Torrance’s thought as to explore some of the promises and perils of his impressive theological project from the perspective of evangelical theology (addressed directly in chapter 1). Most of the standard loci communes (common places) of Christian systematic theology are addressed, as are other important aspects of Torrance’s methodology and historiography. This introduction certainly cannot adequately capture the whole of Torrance’s rich and multi-layered theological program, but a few distinctive and interrelated themes may highlight the important ways his theology interfaces with evangelicalism. No claim is made that these are the most important or the central motifs in Torrance’s theology. Indeed, they are somewhat arbitrarily chosen but are, we believe, representative of Torrance’s significance for evangelical engagement. Perhaps these will whet the appetite of the reader to explore more in the chapters that follow. While Torrance obviously did not explicitly work within the categories of Bebbington’s quadrilateral, it may be helpful to use this rubric as an organizing principle as we bring our dialogue partners into conversation.

CONVERSIONISM

While critical of forms of holiness and pietistic altar calls and crisis moments of faith, Torrance’s theology can be seen to be in sympathy with the evangelical emphasis on conversionism, if by that term is meant, not a focus on technique (Charles Finney et al.) but the need for a personal response to the gospel. In Torrance’s hands, conversion is first of all realized by the incarnate Son and only then is it a reality in the life of the believer. Torrance thus emphasizes something called the vicarious humanity of Christ.

One of the richest themes in Torrance’s theology is his understanding of Christ’s vicarious humanity and ministry. Christology was a central theme for Torrance’s theology. A certain Christocentrism marks all that Torrance touches, from the doctrine of the Trinity to the divinization of humanity in the eschaton (theosis, addressed in chapter 11). And at the heart of Torrance’s Christology is a tight connection between the person and the work of Christ, that is, between the incarnation and atonement. These two are really one doctrine in Torrance’s thought. Building on Calvin’s emphasis on the whole course of Christ’s obedience, Torrance stresses that Christ began his work of atonement (that is, reconciliation) from the moment he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Humanity is saved not only by Christ’s passive obedience (his suffering and death) but also by his active obedience (his whole life of obedience). For Torrance, this means that every step in Christ’s journey is vicarious. Torrance ascribes to Christ a vicarious faith, a vicarious obedience, and even a vicarious repentance (not in terms of any personal sin but in terms of his identification with sinners, especially expressed in his baptism). And under all these aspects of Christ’s work stands his vicarious humanity itself. Self-consciously building on patristic and Eastern influences, Torrance emphasizes the saving significance of the incarnation (see chapter 9). By taking a concrete human nature into personal union with himself, the eternal Son already effects the reconciliation between God and man. There are universal implications of this doctrine that remain a matter of debate, but the richness of this theme provides fertile ground for evangelical consideration.

ACTIVISM

Dogmatics was not merely a theoretical exercise for Torrance. Rather, dogmatics is the bringing of the human person under the full control of the Triune God in order to be drawn up into worship, out into ministry, and deep into acts of Christian witness. Torrance’s Christianity is an active one, which models, in many ways, the evangelical activism Bebbington identified in his historical work. For Torrance, this means the rejection of all invented dualisms that would justify an inactive faith. Torrance calls such dualisms the Latin heresy.

Related to the notion of Christ’s vicarious humanity is the critique that Torrance levels against what he calls the Latin heresy. For Torrance, the Western Christian tradition, especially under Augustine’s influence, has held to a gospel of extrinsicism, where Christ’s humanity is seen as something external to God’s own life and where Christ himself is seen as something external to the humanity that he came to save. In this understanding, the incarnation is merely a prerequisite to the atonement, rather than constitutive of it. And Christ’s work is seen in transactional (especially forensic) rather than participatory terms. Torrance sees in the Greek Fathers a more thorough integration of incarnation and atonement that avoids this so-called heresy. Torrance’s historical generalizations are certainly open to critique, but his theological insights on these matters are nonetheless worthy of evangelical consideration. When the Latin heresy is avoided, so too are those theologies that would argue for an activism based upon a works-based righteousness (Pelagianism), or those that argue for an inactive form of quietism. Both fall short of an evangelical theology. The addition of essays on work (chapter 13), justice and domestic violence (chapter 12), and personal relationships (chapters 7 and 11) is ample evidence of this.

CRUCICENTRISM

The emphasis on the cross of Christ is often thought to be missing in Torrance, but that is a mistake. Torrance does bring incarnation and atonement together, but not at the expense of the cross. An important theme in Torrance’s theology of atonement is the fallen flesh of Christ. One implication of the Latin heresy, for Torrance, is a tendency in Western theology to deny Christ’s participation in our concrete humanity in all of its fallenness and misery. Following Edward Irving and Karl Barth, Torrance maintains that Christ assumed a fallen human nature (though he differs with Irving especially in some important ways). Christ himself is sinless, but he assumes humanity in its fallen state in order to heal it and bend it back to God from within. This is perhaps the most controversial aspect of Torrance’s theology from an evangelical perspective, and much ink has been spilled trying to position it biblically, historically, and theologically. One of the leading voices in these debates, Jerome van Kuiken, weighs in on the issue in chapter 10 of this book. The cross is the climax of the work of Christ; it is the most intense moment of the incarnation and is the supreme example of his vicarious ministry. At the cross, Torrance argues, Christ meets and triumphs over sin, evil, and death. This is confirmed in the resurrection and sealed at Pentecost.

BIBLICISM

All his life Torrance held Holy Scripture in high regard as the Word of God. His personal devotional life consisted of reading the Bible daily and reading through the entire Bible annually. Hundreds of sermons by Torrance survive, all displaying what today we might call an expositional style, centered on a single text of Scripture applied to the congregation. Torrance was insistent that the way to hear the voice of God was through Scripture, and he devoted his life to its dogmatic exposition. At times Torrance followed the path of his mentor Karl Barth and found himself off-side with certain evangelical sensitivities regarding the nature of Scripture (see chapter 3); but he was often equally off-side with liberals who thought him too conservative, too biblicist, and too evangelical.

Again, these themes are selective, and while they are not the terms Torrance would likely have chosen, they are representative of key aspects of his thought. Torrance’s theology is deeply grounded in Scripture and tradition, but he often synthesizes those source materials in creative and controversial ways, as the essays in this book demonstrate. Rather than preview each of the book’s chapters, we invite readers to peruse the table of contents and begin wherever they feel most provoked! However, Thomas Noble’s opening biographical essay would be an obvious choice to begin with, since it sketches Torrance’s life from the unique perspective of his interaction with evangelicalism. It is our hope and prayer that these essays would send readers back to Torrance’s own works, where they will find plenty to challenge and confront but also much to comfort and cheer. To that end, we close with these stirring words of evangelical hope from Torrance himself:

God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualised his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself. Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell, his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.⁸

1

THOMAS F. TORRANCE AND THE EVANGELICAL TRADITION

Thomas A. Noble

Thomas F. Torrance was born into a missionary family in Chengdu in the Sichuan province of western China on August 30, 1913. His first visit to Scotland was in 1920–1921 when his parents, Thomas and Annie Torrance, were on furlough, and he returned to Scotland with his family in 1927 to live there for the majority of his life. A biographical sketch of his early life beginning with his heritage from his missionary parents and their evangelical faith will therefore give us a key insight into T. F. Torrance’s relation to the evangelical tradition and to evangelical theology. His years as professor of Christian dogmatics at New College, Edinburgh and his final decades as a leading theologian can then be seen against the background of the developments in the evangelical tradition in the late twentieth century.

EVANGELICAL MISSIONS

Kenneth Scott Latourette called the nineteenth century the great century of missionary expansion. What is particularly relevant here is to note that the advance of foreign missions throughout the century was rooted in the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. Methodist missions began as early as 1786 with the blessing of John Wesley when Thomas Coke and three other missionaries landed in Antigua in the Leeward Islands. William Carey founded the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 and left for Calcutta the next year. The London Missionary Society, formed in 1795, was supported mainly by Nonconformists. The Church Missionary Society was founded in 1799, led by the evangelical Members of Parliament, Henry Thornton and William Wilberforce, and was supported by Charles Simeon, vicar of Holy Trinity and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Simeon’s curate, Henry Martyn, went to India as the first Anglican missionary in 1806.

Thomas Chalmers, the leader of the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland, eventually persuaded the General Assembly to support foreign missions, and their first missionary, Alexander Duff, arrived in India in 1830. When Chalmers led the evangelicals out of the national church to form the Free Church of Scotland at the Disruption in 1843, all the church’s missionaries except one became missionaries of the Free Church. They quite clearly identified with the evangelical tradition. In the middle of the nineteenth century, a new passion for foreign missions was stimulated by the fame of David Livingstone and led to the faith missions, the first of which was Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission, founded in 1865.

Twenty years later, there were new developments with numbers of young university graduates volunteering for missionary service for the first time. Something of a sensation was caused by the commitment of the Cambridge Seven, led by the cricketer, C. T. Studd, who sailed for China with the China Inland Mission in 1885. This followed a mission to Cambridge University led by the American evangelist, D. L. Moody, at the invitation of the Cambridge Intercollegiate Christian Union (CICCU). Studd’s brother, J. E. Kynaston Studd, who had been president of CICCU, undertook a speaking tour of American colleges at the invitation of Moody. As a result of that, the Student Volunteer Movement was launched. Led by Robert Wilder and J. R. Mott, it adopted the famous watchword, The evangelization of the world in this generation. The Student Volunteer Missionary Union was formed in the United Kingdom in 1892 at a conference in which three of the four Scottish universities were represented. The World Student Christian Federation was formed in 1895.¹

AN EVANGELICAL FAMILY

It was the same year, 1895, that Thomas Torrance went to China with the China Inland Mission (CIM), arriving in January 1896. He was clearly part of that generation of evangelical students who took the watchword as their guide and consecrated their lives to the evangelization of the world. Although his family belonged to the established Church of Scotland (the Auld Kirk), which had no missionaries, he was converted through a Free Church minister and with his conversion came a call to the mission field. He prepared for missions at Hulme Cliff College in Derbyshire (later Cliff College, the Methodist college for evangelists). Two cousins whose branches of the Torrance family belonged to the Free Kirk, served as missionaries, one as a doctor at Tiberias in Palestine and one in India. After language study in Shanghai, Thomas Torrance was placed by the CIM in Chengdu in the province of Sichuan in western China.

The same evangelical commitment is seen in the English missionary who became his wife, Annie Elizabeth Sharpe. The youngest son of their family, David W. Torrance, writes this in his memoirs, My mother was also converted in her teen years and, with her conversion felt the call to mission and evangelism. Soon she felt the call to Overseas Missions and to China. She studied at Redcliffe College, Chelsea and then in the CIM Mission’s Training Home at Grove Park, London.² In 1910, Thomas Torrance resigned from the CIM and returned to Scotland in time for the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. This was inspired by the Student Volunteer Movement and chaired by one of its leaders, J. R. Mott. Torrance returned to China the following year as a superintendent of the American Bible Society based once again in Chengdu, later adding to that further work as a superintendent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1911, he married Annie Sharpe. David Torrance recalls:

In his new post Father was his own master and had the freedom to be the pioneer missionary that he was. He worked tirelessly preaching and, with his Chinese colporteur helpers, distributing Bibles and portions of Scripture. He wrote many of his own Gospel tracts and never, as my mother used to say, lost an opportunity to preach the Gospel.

Until the end of his life he was a passionate evangelist. He carried gospel tracts in his pocket and where possible he never lost an opportunity to witness to Christ.³

Six children were born to the missionary couple. The eldest, Mary, was born in Shanghai, where missionary wives and children had gone because of the unrest following the revolt of Sun Yat-Sen against the Chinese imperial government. Thomas Forsyth Torrance was born back in Chengdu, followed by two more girls, Grace and Margaret, and two boys, James and David, over the next decade.⁴

The family had a fully evangelical devotional life. The children took part in family prayers and also prayed individually with one of their parents. They were taught to read through the Bible each year by reading three chapters every day and five on a Sunday. David Torrance recalled the way in which they were nurtured in their faith by their parents:

They always emphasized that the Christian life involved a personal relationship with a living Lord. Mother often spoke of the person of the Lord Jesus as someone who was living and alive, someone whom we can meet and know personally and who wanted day by day to speak to us and calls us to obey him. The Christian faith was not just something to be understood intellectually. It is something living and alive and something which the youngest child can relate to and something which relates to our everyday living. For this personal emphasis I have always been deeply grateful to my parents.⁵

He also emphasized the role which the Bible played in their evangelical Christian upbringing: My parents also stressed the importance of listening to and knowing God’s Word. He explains:

Mother also encouraged me and the others of the family always to pray each time we opened the Bible before reading. We were encouraged to ask the Lord to speak personally to us. She said, which I never forget, that when we grew up we would find that many people would deny that the Bible was God’s Word or would say many wrong things about it and deny its inspiration, but if we heard God speaking to us through the Bible and through the passage which we were reading, then we would know that the Bible is God’s Word and we would never doubt it. I, and I think others of the family, were never given any theory about Scripture or its inspiration. We were simply told that it was God’s Word and that God spoke to us through it.⁶

T. F. Torrance himself recounted the strong belief in God with which he was imbued from his earliest days: Moreover, as long as I can recall my religious outlook was essentially biblical and evangelical, and indeed evangelistic. He recalled the habit of daily Bible reading and his father’s memorization of Psalms and Romans: Family prayers led by my father on his knees and the evangelical hymns he taught us nourished our spiritual understanding and growth in faith. I can still repeat in Chinese, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so.’  He was deeply conscious of the task to which his parents had been called by God to preach the gospel and win people to Christ: This orientation to mission was built into the fabric of my mind, and has never faded—by its essential nature Christian theology has always had for me an evangelistic thrust.⁷

In 1927, missionary families were leaving China because of the unrest and civil war. The Torrances returned to Scotland, finding a home in Bellshill in North Lanarkshire, east of Glasgow and not far from Shotts where Thomas Torrance had grown up. But Thomas Torrance felt that his work in China was not finished. Together, he and his wife made the decision that he would return to Chengdu for the standard missionary term of seven years while she brought up the family alone. This was the kind of commitment evidenced again and again by evangelical missionaries. The ringing words of C. T. Studd inspired that whole generation: If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.⁸

Their son, Thomas F. Torrance, was fourteen when the family went to live in Bellshill, and he enrolled in Bellshill Academy. Instead of attending the parish church of the Church of Scotland, Annie Torrance took her six children to the Baptist Church, where she could be sure of an evangelical ministry. It was at a prayer meeting there that she requested prayer for her husband in China, and later she learned that at that very moment communist soldiers who were hunting for him had searched every house in a village except the one where he was.⁹

It is quite clear that T. F. Torrance was brought up in a deeply evangelical family. His parents lived with a personal faith in Christ, were committed to the Great Commission, lived a life of prayer, and shaped their lives according to the Scriptures which they believed to be the inspired Word of God. All six children were brought up to share in that living active faith, and their eldest son, Thomas F. Torrance, committed himself from childhood to evangelism and to missions.

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